The problems bedeviling the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner deepened Wednesday, as the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all planes operated by U.S. airlines until the cause of battery fires is resolved. It marked the first time in 34 years an entire airplane model has been pulled out of service.

The development is a setback to San Diego International Airport, which a little more than a month ago debuted its first nonstop service to Japan using the Dreamliner. The local tourism industry is banking on the new flight to deliver high-spending travelers who would not have otherwise visited San Diego.

Japan’s two biggest airlines — Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, which fly almost half the world’s 50 787s — earlier voluntarily grounded their planes for inspections. United Airlines is the only U.S. carrier with 787s. It has six.

Japan Airlines, which had already canceled flights between San Diego and Tokyo for Wednesday and Friday, said it was temporarily discontinuing its 787 operations to “ensure complete safety.”

In a news conference held overnight, the airline updated next week's revised schedule, which shows a total of eight cancelled flights through next Friday between San Diego and Tokyo, affecting 1,290 passengers. JAL is advising passengers to make arrangements to travel via its other gateways - Los Angeles and San Francisco - and it is also working with its joint business partner, American Airlines, to accommodate travelers.

“JAL has not yet determined when it will resume 787 operations and is assessing the situation with investigations,” JAL spokeswoman Carol Anderson said Wednesday. “We apologize to our customers and all related parties for the inconvenience and concerns caused by any affected flights.”

Unlike the other routes it serves, which are being switched to different aircraft, the San Diego-Tokyo flights have to be cancelled because there are no other jets capable of flying in and out of Lindbergh Field to and from Japan.

San Diego’s new nonstop service to Japan was made possible because of the technologically advanced Dreamliner aircraft, which has much improved fuel economy and range to overcome the challenges of Lindbergh Field’s short runway and the headwinds on the route to Asia.

Japan Airlines flies four times a week between San Diego and Narita International Airport and plans to expand to daily service in March. Local airport officials declined to comment on the flight cancellations, deferring to JAL.

Until the decision to ground flights came down, Anderson said there had been few reports of people canceling future flights.

The latest incident to hit the Dreamliner occurred Wednesday, when ANA said pilots smelled something burning and received a cockpit message warning of battery problems while flying from Yamaguchi Ube airport in western Japan to Tokyo.

They made an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan, and passengers evacuated using inflatable slides. An inspection found that a flammable liquid had leaked from the main lithium-ion battery, which is below and slightly behind the cockpit. Investigators found burn marks around the damage.

That followed a Jan. 7 battery fire on a parked Japan Airlines plane at Boston’s Logan airport that took firefighters 40 minutes to extinguish. Both incidents involved the same type of battery, raising worries that they may be connected and that the jet’s electrical problems are more dangerous than previously thought.

So far, no one has suggested that the plane’s fundamental design can’t be fixed. But it’s unclear how much will need to be changed. The remedy could range from relatively quick-and-easy improvements to more extensive changes.

In the short term, the indefinite curtailment of nonstop flights from Japan to San Diego could mean fewer leisure and business travelers heading to San Diego, spending multiple nights in hotels, dining out and visiting local attractions.

“The airport recognizes how important this flight is to San Diego,” said Joe Terzi, president of the San Diego Tourism Authority, which has been heavily promoting the flight here and overseas. “Up until this point, the load factors on the plane were estimated to be over 80 percent both ways so everything was positive up to this point.”

He said he’s concerned that if the Dreamliner’s battery problems are not resolved quickly, a loss of confidence in the aircraft could dissuade people from using the new flight. San Diego, he noted, has seen great success with its other long-haul nonstop flight, to London on British Airways.

“Sure, it is a concern because we worked so hard to get the direct service. It’s not like they’ll say I’ll hop a plane to L.A. and come to San Diego because that’s not what we saw happening with the British Airways flight. It added a lot of new customers who wouldn’t have come to San Diego were it not for the direct flight.”

The FAA has said it would work with Boeing and U.S. airlines to develop a plan to allow the Dreamliner to “resume operations as quickly and safely as possible.”

Boeing said it was working around the clock with investigators.

“We are confident the 787 is safe, and we stand behind its overall integrity,” Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman and CEO, said late Wednesday in a statement.

Until the problems are resolved, it is still too early to fully assess the fallout, but airline analysts point out that the public’s memories are short, and travelers will likely return to flying on these planes, despite the current problems.

“Short term, it will have some impact on public confidence,” said Robert J. Kokonis, managing director of Toronto-based Airline & Travel Consulting. “But, since there have been no incidents or accidents thus far that have resulted in injury or worse, the impact will not be as bad as it could be.

"The new San Diego-Tokyo service with Japan Airlines will obviously suffer in the near term until JAL’s Dreamliners start flying again."

So far, no one has suggested that the plane’s fundamental design can’t be fixed. But it’s unclear how much will need to be changed.

The remedy could range from relatively quick-and-easy improvements to more extensive changes that could delay deliveries just as Boeing is trying to speed production up from five planes per month to 10.

The 787 is the first plane to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries, which have been the focus of concerns in the past for their potential to catch fire. The plane has two batteries — the main one near the front and a second one in the rear.

Boeing and the airlines will need to first determine whether the problem is a flaw in the batteries themselves, in the plane’s wiring or in some other area that’s fundamental to the plane’s electrical system.

Mike Sinnett, chief engineer on the 787, said last week that the plane’s batteries have operated through a combined 1.3 million hours and never had an internal fault. He said they were built with multiple protections to ensure that “failures of the battery don’t put the airplane at risk.”

The lithium-ion design was chosen because it’s the only type of battery that can take a large charge in a short amount of time.

Boeing has booked orders for more than 800 of the planes from airlines around the world attracted by its increased fuel efficiency.

James Perkins, chief operating officer for the San Diego law firm, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, whose firm makes frequent trips to Asia representing the interests of their San Diego technology firm clients, does not believe the Dreamliner problems will shake the company’s faith in the new nonstop service.

“I’ve flown for so many years, and commercial aviation has been very solid, and I trust our review boards,” Perkins said. “Unfortunately, it’s bad marketing for San Diego because we just got this thing going.”

A colleague of his worries that the aircraft's problems, if not resolved soon, could potentially derail San Diego's nonstop flight.

"I am not worried about the alleged problems with Dreamliner because these will get worked out quickly, but would be disappointed if this discourages others to the point of JAL cancelling this non-stop flight to/from San Diego/Tokyo because I was looking forward to the convenience of flying non-stop from San Diego to Japan," said Steve Beuerle, who heads the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Team.

Boeing's problems have fueled much dialog on social media, with one young woman from the United Kingdom wondering whether she'd have to cancel her upcoming honeymoon to Mexico via the Dreamliner.

"As a wedding present my parents have paid for us to fly premier class (on the Dreamliner), so up until now it was something we were really looking forward to," said Kelly Brown, 24, of Manchester. "Obviously, it's only early days yet with the reports and as we don't fly until June we plan to see what happens with the investigations."

"I'm a nervous flyer at the best of times so needless to say I'm a bit worried about what will happen."